Syracuse.com - Cornell monitoring red-tailed hawk and great blue heron nests with 24-hour cameras

[HuntingNY-News]

"You can watch them even when it's dark," he said.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has set up two neat, 24-hour cameras on nesting birds in the Ithaca area.

One is on a red-tailed hawk nest. The other is keeping watch on a great blue heron nest.

The red-tailed hawk nest is situated on a light tower next to an athletic field on the Cornell campus.

"There's already three young hawks in the nest. They started hatching April 21," said Charles Eldermire, the lab's Bird Cams Project leader. "They'll probably fledge (leave the nest) around the first or second week of June."

The adult hawks have been given names. "The nestlings are starting to peck and pull at prey that Ezra and Big Red bring to the nest," according to the website.

The second camera is on a great blue heron nest, which is situated on the grounds of the lab on Sapsucker Woods Road.

"Three of the five eggs hatched about a week ago. The other two have not and it's unclear at this point whether they will," he said. "Those that have hatched will fledge probably in mid-July."

"You can watch them even when it's dark," he said.

See the red-tailed hawk nest.

See the blue heron nest.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog